Tag: Anuj Gupta

  • Anuj Gupta climbs the media ladder, takes charge as sr vice president at Havas Media Network

    Anuj Gupta climbs the media ladder, takes charge as sr vice president at Havas Media Network

    MUMBAI: Media maven Anuj Gupta has stepped into the big league as sr. vice president at Havas Media Network, marking another high in a 20-year career that’s seen him steer some of the country’s top media accounts.

    Gupta, who was previously vice president at Havas, has been part of the agency since 2021, helping shape strategy, planning and buying across marquee brands. His promotion is a nod to his deep-rooted expertise and consistent delivery in the ever-evolving world of media.

    He’s no stranger to the circuit, having spent time at DDB Mudra, Starcom Mediavest, Carat, Cheil, and Maxus. Whether it was launching Reliance Big TV, shaping the media story for Samsung’s white goods, or rolling out Nokia’s telecom blitz, Gupta has worn the strategist’s hat with flair.

    Known for turning consumer insights into sharp, actionable media playbooks, he blends old-school rigour with new-age digital agility. Over the years, he’s mastered media mix modelling, cross-platform integration, competitive analysis, and ROI-driven planning.

    Now, with Havas doubling down on India’s growth engine, Gupta’s elevation signals a sharper focus on full-funnel media strategy. As he gears up for the next chapter, one thing’s clear – this VP knows how to turn impressions into impact.

  • Swiggy orders fresh talent, puts Anuj Gupta in revenue driver’s seat as VP

    Swiggy orders fresh talent, puts Anuj Gupta in revenue driver’s seat as VP

    MUMBAI: Swiggy just ordered itself a fresh hot serving of growth—with extra toppings of expertise. The food delivery giant is turning up the heat in its growth kitchen by appointing seasoned omnichannel wizard Anuj Gupta as vice president of revenue and growth for its food marketplace. Clearly, Swiggy knows the secret sauce to stay ahead: hiring a seasoned chef of consumer-tech strategy.

    Bringing more than 14 years of consumer-tech and retail mastery to Swiggy’s table, Gupta is tasked with spearheading strategic initiatives that’ll spice up user growth, revenue expansion, and brand power.

    Previously, Gupta co-founded Thimblerr, transforming it into a powerhouse in fashion supply-chain solutions. Before stitching success at Thimblerr, he held key positions at Zivame, notably as chief revenue officer, dramatically shifting it from a marketplace to India’s biggest women’s intimatewear brand, driving revenue up by a staggering 12 times in just four years. Now that’s some impressive brand makeover!

    Notably at Zivame, Gupta also boosted six month customer retention by 1400 basis points and increased purchase frequency by 25 per cent. These numbers aren’t just impressive—they’re sizzling hot!

    At Swiggy, Gupta’s culinary magic will focus on optimising revenue streams, enhancing customer experience, and maximising platform growth. Whether it’s perfecting the recipe for customer retention or cooking up tasty innovations in user engagement, he’s got a proven appetite for results.

    Gupta’s earlier stints include impactful roles at Myntra, JPMorgan Chase, and co-founding ventures like Flont and Citizens for Accountable Governance. Clearly, he loves wearing multiple hats—and looks good in all of them!

    With Gupta behind the wheel, Swiggy aims to deliver an enhanced dining experience for millions across India, one delicious strategy at a time.

  • Transforming workforce training for Birla Opus Paints with VR innovation: An AutoVRse case study

    Transforming workforce training for Birla Opus Paints with VR innovation: An AutoVRse case study

    Mumbai: Birla Paints, a new entrant in the market, is ambitiously aiming for a quick rise to the top spot. With plans to install production units in and outside India, there is a sudden need for an effective training program for the newly hired workforce. AutoVRse comes to offer the answer through immersive virtual reality (VR) training that caters to linguistic diversity and ensures effective skill acquisition and retention.

    A trained and skilled factory workforce is of utmost importance for manufacturing companies. Whether you are expanding to newer geographies or growing your production per plant, scaling traditional safety and process training comes with its challenges:

    “We implemented a comprehensive digital training program, utilizing immersive VR simulations and gamified learning modules to upskill their factory workforce. This innovative approach not only improved knowledge retention and engagement but also significantly reduced training time and costs, ultimately boosting productivity and ensuring a safer working environment.” exclaimed Anuj.

    Skill Diversification: With diverse job roles spanning from manufacturing to customer service, ensuring uniform skill development across the workforce poses a significant challenge. Tailoring training programs to address the specific needs of each department while maintaining consistency can be complex.

    Language Barriers: Birla Opus Paints operates in regions with linguistic diversity. Ensuring effective communication and comprehension across all levels of the workforce to scale your training across geographies is a major challenge in India.

    Cost constraints: Implementing extensive training programs, particularly those utilizing Virtual Reality (VR), can result in cutting down expenses. Balancing the need for high-quality impactful training with budgetary constraints poses a challenge for most training initiatives.

    Sustainability of learning: Ensuring that the skills acquired through training programs are retained and applied consistently in real-world scenarios is a must. Sustaining the impact of training beyond the initial sessions requires ongoing reinforcement and support mechanisms.

    Remote work challenges: With the rise of remote work arrangements, providing effective training to employees working from different locations becomes challenging. Maintaining consistent training standards and accessibility for remote workers requires innovative solutions.

    Employee engagement and motivation: Keeping employees engaged and motivated throughout the training process can be a challenge, particularly with repetitive or mandatory training modules. Designing training experiences that are interactive, engaging, and relevant to employees’ roles is crucial.

    Measuring training effectiveness: Assessing the impact and effectiveness of training programs is essential for continuous improvement. Developing reliable metrics and evaluation methods to gauge the success of training initiatives and identify areas for improvement poses a challenge.

    “Addressing these challenges requires a holistic approach that combines innovative technology, and tailored training strategies, and a commitment to continuous improvement. By overcoming these hurdles, Birla Paints can ensure that its workforce remains skilled, adaptable, and equipped to meet the evolving demands of the industry,” said AutoVRse enterprise and sales lead Anuj Gupta.

    Birla Opus Paints recognised VR training as the right solution to its needs and picked AutoVRse as the perfect partner to create truly effective and scalable training modules in VR.

    In 4 foundational steps, AutoVRse is helping Birla Opus Paints address the immediate requirement to train the incoming workforce and scale the training program across use cases and geographies.

    Step 1: Beginning with off-the-shelf VR training lessons

    To cater to the immediate requirement of Birla Opus to train the workforce in their new plants, the easy first step was to dip into AutoVRse’s content library of readymade VR training modules… These modules cover key processes along with working at height, electrical safety, fire safety, and lock-out-tag out, ensuring complete training in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, and more. By leveraging AutoVRse’s proven instructional design philosophy, trainees can gain better skill retention, setting the stage for a solid foundation of protecting work and protocols.

    Step 2: Customide training modules for increased ROI

    Recognizing the need for customized training experiences, Birla Paints utilizes the personalisation options presented with AutoVRse. With the Unity SDK and VRseBuilder, you can tailor training scenarios without the need for coding expertise. This flexibility will allow them to create diverse and challenging situations, which ensures maximum engagement and improvement of skills among trainees. By customizing the modules, Birla Paints optimizes the ROI according to the session, making every training effective and impactful.

    Step 3: Integration with corporate IT systems and scaling with VR-native LMS

    As training initiatives expand, Birla Paints focuses on seamless integration with its existing corporate IT systems. AutoVRse’s VR-native LMS proves instrumental in consolidating training data and simplifying management tasks. Integration with single sign-on (SSO) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) streamlines administrative processes, allowing Birla Paints to efficiently track progress and demonstrate ROI. With all VR training data centralized, Birla Paints gains valuable insights into employee development and skill enhancement.

    Step 4: Scaling XR across teams and use cases

    To further enhance training effectiveness, the last step poised by AutoVRse for Birla Paints is VRseBuilder, an all-in-one platform for VR app creation and management. By adhering to the VRseBuilder philosophy of simplicity and accessibility, Birla Paints will empower its teams to develop immersive training experiences effortlessly. Through VRseBuilder, they can foster a culture of continuous learning and skill development, ensuring employees are best prepared for workplace challenges. With AutoVRse’s innovative solutions, Birla Paints embarks on a journey towards safer, more efficient manufacturing processes.

    “AutoVRse’s training modules adhere to a set of instructional design principles aimed at maximizing learning retention and real-world application” added Anuj.

    Mimic the real world: By creating training environments that closely resemble real-world scenarios, AutoVRse ensures high-fidelity learning experiences.

    Engage learners with active tasks: Through interactive tasks and simulations, trainees are actively involved in the learning process, enhancing knowledge retention.

    Train with variation and repetition: AutoVRse incorporates varied scenarios to reinforce concepts, ensuring comprehensive skill development through repeated exposure.

    Provide instant actionable feedback: Trainees receive immediate feedback on their performance, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and learning.

    Enable real-world behavioral change: By leveraging the immersive nature of VR, AutoVRse facilitates genuine behavioral change, as skills learned in virtual environments directly translate to real-world applications.

    “AutoVRse and Birla Paints are revolutionizing the manufacturing industry, empowering employees with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in a dynamic workplace environment.” finally exclaimed, Anuj.

    In conclusion, with a focus on instructional design principles that prioritize real-world applicability and engagement, Birla Paints aims to foster a culture of continuous learning and skill development among its workforce with AutoVRse. By embracing VR technology, Birla Paints has not only enhanced workplace safety and efficiency but also positioned itself as a leader in next-generation manufacturing training. As they continue to evolve and innovate, the partnership between AutoVRse and Birla Paints serves as a testament to the transformative power of VR training in shaping the future of manufacturing education. Together, they are paving the way for a new era of training excellence, where virtual reality becomes an indispensable tool in empowering the workforce of tomorrow.

  • Online poker in India continues to thrive despite legal hurdles

    Online poker in India continues to thrive despite legal hurdles

    MUMBAI: Poker in India has a perception problem. While some view it as gambling, others consider it a game of skill. Despite this deep divide, poker has witnessed tremendous growth in the country in the last decade. Industry insiders estimate there are close to two million real money poker players in India. They also firmly believe that this number is only expected to grow significantly in the years to come.

    Founder and CEO of online poker website Adda52, Anuj Gupta says, “Online poker in India is growing at a rate of 30-40 per cent year-on-year. Fantasy leagues for cricket and football, within a short span has taken over beacuse of the huge fan base. Our online tournaments are also growing at a certain rate because people want to experience it and learn.”

    Gaussian Network, Adda52’s parent company, was acquired by Jaydev Mody-owned Delta Corp, for a total consideration of Rs 223.9 crore last year.

    Gupta believes that India is evolving slowly, primarily because card games carry a negative perception. He believes that engaging with the public at large to change the narrative around poker in India is essential. To conduct good tournaments and people talk about it, is the best way to market the product.

    “Because of the negative perception, fewer brands come on board and that too with lots of conditions. The fact is that it is not a mass market product, and is still a very small segment. In a few years atleast we should be able to reach the rummy stage of acceptability and then market it very aggressively to the target segment who would like to play”, Gupta added.

    The social and legal problems surrounding poker in India hasn’t deterred the world’s biggest portal PokerStars from entering the market. Despite all the hurdles, promoters, in and outside India, continue to remain bullish on India. 

    Spartan Poker co-founder and MD Amin Rozani believes that the Indian market is ripe and ready for more exposure to sports like poker, and the entry of international players is a testament to that. Spartan poker, he says,  is glad to see the market extending and opening up to poker and is certain that the space has enough and more for all the online players.

    Branding and promoting a product like poker in India can be quite tricky. To overcome handicaps related to socials taboos, regulatory authorities and hesitation from advertisers in collaborating, poker companies have devised rather unique marketing methods.

    Spartan Poker says it has found the right mix to differentiate itself from others in the industry. On an average it has more than 25,000 active users monthly.

    Spartan poker has an annual marketing budget of Rs 20 crore, out of which 65 per cent is spent on digital and the remaining 35 per cent is being used offline like out-of-home (OOH), above the line (ATL), below the line (BTL) and radio.

    The company has employed guerrilla marketing tactics such as a radium hoarding campaign at some of Goa’s most prominent locations.

    “This campaign helps to ensure stickiness in terms of attention of the audience compared to a normal OOH. Our auto rickshaw and tricycle branding campaigns were also carried out in the same vein and got due attention,” says Rozani.

    Despite the buzz and acitivty in online poker, regulatory hurdles continue to remain unadressed.

    Glaws.in founder Jay Sayta says, “Poker is facing legal challenges, as of now it is a bit complicated. The game is catching up really fast and at present the online poker industry is about Rs 300-400 crore. Everything comes down to a tough question of whether it is a game of skills or chance.”

    As per a recent report by Google-KPMG, the online gaming industry in India is expected to grow to $1 billion by 2021 from the current $360 million, with the online gamers’ community reaching 310 million by then. 

    Sayta believes that transforming the mindset of  the general public is a slow process. Chess legend Viswanathan Anand promoting Poker Sports League (PSL) is big a game changer. Interestingly, the PSL was telecast on Discovery’s DSports.

    It’s not hard to understand why online poker companies continue to mushroom by the day. However, the business continues to function under a cloud of instability. To what extent India’s poker industry grows from hereon solely depends on the country’s government.

    Also Read :

    Guest Column: Online poker the next big wave in digital

    Dsport to telecast Poker Sports League’s season 2

  • amfAR HOLDS INAUGURAL INDIA GALA

    amfAR HOLDS INAUGURAL INDIA GALA

    MUMBAI : Some of the most distinguished figures in Indiansociety joined Sharon Stone, Hilary Swank, AbhishekBachchan, AishwaryaRaiBachchan, amfAR Chairman Kenneth Cole,amfAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost, and Cyrus Poonawalla, Ph.D. last night at the inaugural amfAR India gala in support of amfAR’s innovative AIDS research programs.

    The black tie event, held at The TajMahal Palace Hotel, featured a cocktail reception, dinner, and a gold-themed fashion show featuring exclusive looks by RohitBal, Abu Jani-SandeepKhosla, and TarunTahiliani with jewels by Azva, TarunTahiliani for Azva, Symetree, and Amrapali. The evening concluded with a high-energy performance by pop sensation Ke$ha, whosesongs including her hits “Animal,” “We R Who We R,” and “TikTok,” had guests dancing into the night.

    amfAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost invited actress and producer Hilary Swank to the stage at the exclusive event. Ms. Swank gave opening remarks and introduced amfAR Chairman Kenneth Cole, who spoke about amfAR’s global HIV/AIDS eradication initiatives and the important role of research in ending the epidemic. Bollywood luminaries AbhishekBachchan and AishwaryaRaiBachchan also addressed the more than 300 guests in attendance. In a highlight of the evening, amfAR Global Fundraising Chairman Sharon Stone took the stage and made an impassioned call to action to the many business and cultural heavyweights in the room, saying “There isn’t a family who has not been touched by AIDS.”

    Other notable guests included Neeta Ambani, Anuj Gupta, Rocky Malhotra, VenugopalDhoot, VikramChatwal, Lisa Haydon, Dimple Kapadia, Parmeshwar Godrej, NargisFakhri, SonalChauhan, Torquhil Campbell, Duke of Argyll, Dino Morea, and NanditaMahtani, among many others.
    amfAR India was made possible by Presenting Sponsor Cyrus Poonawalla, Signature Sponsors LoveGold and Delta Air Lines, Automotive Partner BMW, and Partner Chivas.